If you are one of those waiting with a great idea under the hood but don’t know how to go about it, here are a few things you might want to consider.

Phase-wise approach

Creating a web or a mobile application is a complex process. It involves several phases from ideation to design, and from design to implementation to testing and going live. It is best to plan for a phase-wise release rather than a masterpiece with fancy features in one shot. The idea is to solve one problem at a time. If the application gets too ambitious it might never see the light of the day. Document the purpose and the problem the application is going to solve.

Develop a prototype first before launching the full project at once. Prototypes are great because they generate feedback based on which you can design the idea better. This also helps in disciplining the budget rather than risk exhausting all funds in one go.

Understanding user experience

A product does not become great just because it solves a problem but because it is also simple to use. The key to creating a user-friendly experience is to bring the designer and the programmer closer as they come from different worldviews. A programmer has to think beyond the platform while the designer has to understand performance across various technologies and devices. A product comes alive only when form and function integrate seamlessly.

Integrating proficiently

Creating a seamless experience across web and mobile involves design that goes deeper than the copy paste approach from one idea to another. You cannot directly translate experiences from web to mobile but need to first recognize the differences of context and language in different media. Mobile content has to be designed for specific needs whereas web can have further details.

From a functional level, the UX designer has to understand basic technology while the software developer must appreciate aesthetics and design philosophy. Can you have the same drop down menu design for web and mobile? Can you use the same fancy fonts and flashy images across devices? How does it affect visibility and readability in a smaller screen, how do the image resolutions appear in different media, and how fast does it load are some of the issues bound to challenge because they impact the user directly.

New technologies have evolved making it easier and faster to implement ideas. Creating a simple e-commerce application used to
take up so much time and effort earlier but now you can create complex applications in a jiffy with platforms like Shopify. It is now possible for two people to develop a product that took several people earlier. Because of the DRY (Do not Repeat Yourself) principle, where software coding has evolved from a conventional to a configuration approach, it is now possible to develop complex applications with minimal resources. Indeed, today’s application development is not so much about using the waterfall or agile methodology but about going Oxifrugal, which is creating an Optimal Experience with Frugal resources.

Have a great idea? Go Oxifrugal and take a phase-wise approach! After all, Facebook started as a PHP based app but today it’s
available across devices and technologies to millions of people.

12 Responses

Bhavya

May 17, 2015 at 5:24 pm

Yes, phase-wise approach is really a great way to consider it while developing web and mobile applications and product development. Every business has to go step by step process to reach their goals. It is a very challenging task to come up with a great content website. It requires a lot of effort, time and a proper structure to achieve it.

I like these thoughts, now a days technology is booming in different ways and there is competitions in developing the products so we have to build a good product with minimal resources,user friendly and deployment the product in different platforms like cloud environments depending on users requirements so that user will be happy with our work.

Various devices, different browsers, various technologies and compatibility issues with devices, and browsers, technology upgrades etc no doubt Phase by phase implementation and execution is the best strategy. Helps to solve lot of problems and time. And never to forget that the design and the technology must go together when making a product keeping in mind the end user or customer.

I will add up one more phase which I believe is the base to all i.e RESEARCH.

It is quite difficult to understand the exact needs of the customer. So we must review the specifications as it varies from region and lifestyle. Further at development the coding would not be complicated and the result would be quick. The response message shown to the user must be accurate.
Considering the above tasks challenging the development process.

To Develop a web/mobile application
the ui designer and ui developer should have mutual understanding. undoubtedly new softwares and technologies help us to develop applications with less efforts. but we should not completely depend on new frameworks and technologies. copy paste techniques will not work all the time. so we should be very smart at some times.

Its very truly said that creating a web or mobile application is a complex process but not anymore because of the various technologies present in the market which helps in designing any application in an efficient manner. This post is very informative as one can see what one need to follow during designing an app. A designer has to collaborte hand in hand with developers to create a good application. Its not a work of single hand but a combined effort of many people to make a product.